Sustainable Manufacturing: from Car Parts to Nanobumps and Ecosystems

Sustainable manufacturing is gaining more and more interest from companies and researchers. In this talk, we will show how such a systems view is needed to identify the correct focal areas. We will use examples from automotive engineering where we quantified environmental loadings to demonstrate where new research and development should take place to achieve higher reductions in environmental impact. We will also present ongoing work in biologically inspired design aimed at identifying recurring principles in Nature that could provide fundamentally new engineering design principles for achieving sustainable designs. For example, one can apply the Lotus effect to reduce fouling of products through creation of self-cleaning surfaces. As will be shown, care must be taken though to balance claimed benefits in the use phase with upstream production impacts. At a higher level, closed loop production networks can also be developed using ecological principles. From Lotus effect to closed loop supply chain integration, sustainable manufacturing must include a systems view crossing multiple scales in order to have true sustainable benefits.